The Metaphorical Conceptualization of Two Conceptual Domains “Personality†and “Emotion†Through English Speakers’ Language

From the theory of conceptual metaphor, this study investigates how the two conceptual domains “personality†and “emotion†are conceptualized by English speakers through the language they use and finds out the role of that conceptualization in creating and comprehending the meaning of linguistic expressions referring to “personality†and “emotion†. The study is expected to provide the learners and teachers of English language with more insights into what lexicon can be used to talk about the two conceptual domains “personality†and “emotion†in English, avoiding the possibility of misunderstanding due to cultural-cognitive differences. The data was collected from 99 stories in the book “101 healing stories for kids and teens: Using metaphors in therapy†by George W. Burns through the metaphor identification method proposed by the Pragglejaz group (2007). Results show that PERSONALITY is often perceived in relation to more concrete concepts, including: A BUILDING, A DISEASE, A FLUID IN A CONTAINER A CONTAINER, A RESOURCE, A SOCIAL FORCE, and HEAT. Similarly, the category EMOTION is conceptualized as A CONTAINER, A MOVING OBJECT, AN ANIMAL, AN OBJECT, and HEAT. The results also show that English speakers’ perception is the basis for creating and comprehending the meaning of metaphorical linguistic expressions. From the analysis, the study suggests that the teachers of English language should be based the English native speakers’ conceptualization of these two domains “personality†and “emotion†to teach English collocations with “personality traits†and “kinds of emotions†and the the learners of English language should conceptualize and talk about “personality traits†and “kinds of emotions†in the way the native speakers do.